Internet is becoming an important channel for retail commerce as well as business to business transactions. The number of web buyers, sellers and transactions is growing at a rapid pace. But the potential for the internet for truly transforming commerce and business still remains to be fully realized. Electronic purchases are still largely non-automated. Software techniques are required to automate several of the most time consuming stages of web surfing and buying/selling processes. Additionally, business to business web transactions are demanding seamless query facilities over all kinds of information at the front end web portal sites as well as at the back end relational databases in a connected enterprise. Uniform querying, decision support and transactional characteristics need to be present over any kind of web data despite of the fact that data mayor may not be immediately present in a single relational database. So far transactional and query capabilities are limited to data residing inside a relational database whereas text and multimedia data residing at a web site are only viewed by the use of Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). The World Wide Web was originally built for human consumption, and although everything on it is machine-readable, everything is not machine-understandable. It is bard to automate anything on the web, and because of the volume of information the web contains, it is not possible to manage it manually.
W3C is an international industry consortium to lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability. The solutions so far proposed by W3C in Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Resource Description Framework (RDF) incorporate metadata to describe the data contained on the web. Metadata is “data about data” or specifically “data describing Web resources” in the context of the World Wide Web. The distinction between “data” and “metadata” is not an absolute one and it is a distinction created primarily by an application. Programs and autonomous agents can gain knowledge about data from metadata specifications.
The RDF model draws well-established principles from various data representation communities. RDF properties may be thought of as attributes of resources and in this sense correspond to traditional attribute-value pairs. The basic model consists of three object types,:                (1) Resources: All things being described by RDF expressions are called resources. A resource may be an entire Web page; for example the HTML document Overview.html available from the W3 organization. A resource may be a part of a Web page; e.g. a specific HTML or XML element within a document source. A resource may also be a whole collection of pages; e.g. an entire Web site. Resources are identified by universal resource identifiers or URIs. Anything can have URI; the extensibility of URIs allows the introduction of identifiers for any imaginable entity.        (2) Properties: A property is a specific aspect, characteristic, attribute or relation used to describe a resource. Each property has a specific meaning, defines its permitted values, the types of resources it can describe, and its relationship with other properties.        (3) Statements: A specific resource together with a named property plus the value of that property for that resource is a RDF statement. These three individual parts of a statement are called, respectively, the subject, the predicate and the object. The object of a statement (i.e. the property value) can be another resource or it can be a literal, i.e. a resource (specified by a URI) or a simple string or other primitive data type defined by XML.        
A simple example statement “John Doe is the creator of the resource http://www.w3.org/home/John” has the Subject (resource) http://www.w3.org/home/John, Predicate (property) as “Creator” and Object (literal) as “John Doe”. Meaning in RDF is expressed through reference to a schema. A schema is a place where definitions and restrictions of usage for properties are documented, in order to avoid conflicts in definitions of the same term, RDF uses the XML namespace facility where a specific use of a word is tied to the dictionary (schema) where the definition exists. Each predicate used in a statement must be identified with exactly one namespace, or schema. RDF model also allows qualified property value where the object of the original statement is the structured value and the qualifiers are further properties of a common resource. To represent a collection of resources, RDF uses an additional resource that identifies the specific collection. This resource should be declared to be an instance of one of the container object types, namely,                (1) Bag (an unordered list of resources or literals),        (2) Sequence (an ordered list of resources or literals) and        (3) Alternative (a list of resources or literals that represent alternatives for the single value of a property).        
A common use of containers is the value of a property. When used in this way, the statement still has a single statement object regardless of the number of members in the container; the container resource itself is the object of the statement. Use of metadata was so far popular in relational databases to describe attributes, number and types of columns in tables, foreign-key/primary-key relationships, views etc. in a relational schema. SQL (Structured Query Language) queries made against a relational schema are resolved by fetching metadata from data dictionaries (or repository for metadata definitions) to interpret data fetched from data files during execution of a relational operation Query executions are independent of any application domain specific features. In a similar manner, Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a foundation for representing and processing metadata and data for the World Wide Web; it provides interoperability between applications that exchange machine-understandable information on the web. The broad goal of RDF is to define a mechanism for describing resources that makes no assumptions about a particular application domain, nor defines the semantics of any application domain. RDF relies on the support of XML (extensible markup language), and its model resembles an entity-relationship diagram. In object-oriented design terminology, resources correspond to objects and properties correspond to instance variables. To facilitate the definition of metadata, RDF represents a class system much like object-oriented programming and modeling systems. A collection of classes is called a schema. Schemas may themselves be written in RDF.
Representation of “data about data” (metadata) to achieve application independent interoperable solutions carries the basic similarity between relational databases and RDF. However, RDF does not carry facilities for specifying queries making use of metadata, so far possible in a relational database. Query capabilities enable users in construct arbitrary types of data on the fly for application processing logic to apply. Additionally, relational databases are having advanced capabilities in universal servers to specify application interfaces embedded inside SQL query expressions to represent operations or methods to apply over constructed data. Such important possibilities are also missing from RDF. Lack of such facilities is the limitation of RDF to address evolving electronic business needs in its completeness.
Relational algebra incorporates algebraic operations like join, select, project, union, intersection etc. Such operations are expressed in queries against a relational schema. As opposed to this scenario, web entities are accessed by navigation through Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs). An amalgamation of these two paradigms is the desired goal to achieve in electronic business. Relational operations over RDF definitions for resources and their attributes are possible exploiting relationships over resources and structured properly values and normalizing them in a back end relational database. Queries involving join, select, project and other relational operations can be effectively used to extract desired values and properties of resources. Without such a mechanism, web surfing in conjunction with complex automated business to business services and transactions are not possible.
Electronic commerce and services have introduced many new ways of trading allowing interaction between groups that previously could not economically afford to trade among one another. Whereas previously commercial data interchange involved mainly the movement of data fields from one computer to another, the new model for web-based commerce and services is typically dependent on intelligent processing and interactions for the transactions to take place. This involves understanding and specifying business concepts represented in the interchanged data and subsequent application of business-specific rules or methods to the interchanged data. Transactional and query facilities with embedded method interfaces can lead to such a powerful scheme. Query specifications with embedded interfaces are currently present in object relational databases or universal servers. Object relational databases with business logic bound inside the server offer distinct directions for resolving similar complex issues over XML/RDF definitions and Java classes, Transactional and query facilities to an object relational database are possible through thin client windows incorporating a persistent connectivity with the database. Persistent connectivity to a database system is not possible in a simple browser for stateless web navigation.
XML/RDF documents are interchanged based upon HTTP (Hypertext transfer protocol) which is different from IIOP (Internet inter ORB protocol). HTTP is the main communication mechanism among web browsers and servers. It is a stateless protocol implying that there is no way for the client and the server to know each others state. Since web is stateless, each transaction consumes time and resources in the setup and closing of network and database connections. For large transaction processing applications, this overhead will be significant. Internet inter ORB protocol (IIOP) is a dynamic invocation interface for the web. This protocol maintains the session between the client and the server objects until either side disconnects. It provides persistent connectivity over the web for distributed objects. The OMG (Object Management Group) is an industry consortium to create a component based software marketplace by establishing industry guidelines and detailed object management specifications to provide a common framework for application development. Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) from OMG specifies the Object Request Broker (ORB) that allows applications and programs to communicate with one another no matter where they reside on the web. The IIOP specification defines a set of data formatting rules, called CDR (Common Data Representation) which is tailored to the data types supported in the CORBA interface definition language (IDL). Electronic business transactions and query servers implementing structured query language (SQL.) processing engine require internet protocols for document transfers as well as object executions with persistent connectivity over the web. As a result, such an engine must build on top of both HTTP and IIOP. Traditional browsers for navigation need to be augmented with additional capabilities for occasional creation, maintenance and destruction of one or more client windows interfacing databases over the web for transactions and collaborations. These windows require IIOP for persistent connectivity.
A database schema can be partitioned over the web in such a way that disparate business logic and business objects can exist with relevant data and views over the web. Unifying the object paradigm and relational model paradigm is the mainstream effort across the industry. Unified model for distributed relational databases integrated with object model is the key to many storage and manipulation issues fur the electronic business. Universal relational database servers are available from different database vendors to offer general to extensibility and features for electronic business. One can extend types of attributes in tables and integrate routines defined by users written in high level programming languages. Such products offer the facilities of user-defined routines and packages. A user-defined routine (UDR) is a routine that a user creates and registers in the system catalog tables and that is invoked within a SQL statement or another routine. A function is a routine that optionally accepts a set of arguments and returns a set of values. A function can be used in SQL expressions. A procedure is a routine that optionally accepts a set of arguments and does not return any values. A procedure cannot be used in SQL expressions because it does not return a value. An UDR can be either a function or a procedure. The ability to integrate user-defined routines, packages and functions within SQL is the extensibility feature offered by universal servers and such features are useful for electronic business.
Uniform Resource Identifiers are frequently embedded in XML and HTML pages where a browser can navigate through a resource identifier to find and manipulate web objects. A resource can also identify an object relational schema component over the web. RDF documents represent metadata that could be directly derived from one or more object relational database(s). Information existing inside object relational databases presented in XMI/RDF definitions makes an information hierarchy over the web that should be seamlessly navigated and queried. This kind of seamless interoperability can prove to be very valuable in electronic business and commerce. However, these possibilities are not present in current state of the art.
This disclosure refers to URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers), which are strings of text, defined by and available from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), that uniquely identify some resource.
This disclosure refers to RDF statement updates, which are not part of the RDF standard but follow a common convention. RDF statements are composed of a subject, predicate and object and an update refers to a change only to the object of the statement.
Conventional RDF Storage Servers provide read access to stored RDF data via RDF queries sent across either HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) or Web Services. Such systems also provide write access by supporting ‘Add’ and ‘Remove’ requests, in the form of serialized RDF graphs, from clients. None of these systems, however, allow a trackable update to an RDF statement, which means that while a statement may be removed and another added as a replacement, no relation between the two statements may be tracked. Note that in RDF, no implied relation can be determined with certainty, so such tracking must be made explicitly. Also, conventional systems do not provide implicit construction of statements or enforce semantic rules restricting which users may add, update or remove specific RDF statements.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,418,448 B1 issued to Jul. 9, 2002 to Sarkar for METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROCESSING MARKUP LANGUAGE SPECIFICATIONS FOR DATA AND METADATA USED INSIDE MULTIPLE RELATED INTERNET DOCUMENTS TO NAVIGATE, QUERY AND MANIPULATE INFORMATION FROM A PLURALITY OF OBJECT RELATIONAL DATABASES OVER THE WEB discloses a system for navigation through multiple documents in Extensible Markup Language and Resource Description Framework to inspect data/metadata in order to either start a transaction on selected item(s) in separate thin client window(s) with persistent connectivity through Internet Inter ORB Protocol or implicitly trigger read-only queries in Structured Query Language (SQL) represented in Resource Description Framework against a unified virtual Database defined over multiple physical disparate object relational databases over the web.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,611,835 B1 issued Aug. 26, 2003 to Huang et al. for SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MAINTAINING UP-TO-DATE LINK INFORMATION IN THE METADATA REPOSITORY OF A SEARCH ENGINE discloses a system and method for updating search engine information that is more efficient, less time-coming, and less costly than prior techniques.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,643,684 B1 issued Nov. 4, 2003 to Malkin et al. for SENDER-SPECIFIED DELIVERY CUSTOMIZATION discloses a system and method that enables a given sending user to specify a set of delivery policies and have them used for the electronic delivery of a given message, the message potentially having several heterogeneous parts (e.g. text and pictures) each of which is handled differently, and delivered to multiple heterogeneous devices (e.g. PCs, Smartphones, fax machines), and possible to several distinct recipients.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,701,314 B1 issued Mar. 2, 2004 to Conover et al. for SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CATALOGUING DIGITAL INFORMATION FOR SEARCHING AND RETRIEVAL discloses a system and method for searching and retrieving information stored in heterogeneous information repositories. A portal server retrieves user requests through a computer network and looks up information stored in a metadata database. For example, the metadata may be encoded in an XML/RDF format and stored in a directory server to facilitate effective searching and retrieval of information from an information repository.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2002/0059566 A1 published May 16, 2002 by Delcambre et al. for UNI-LEVEL DESCRIPTION OF COMPUTER INFORMATION AND TRANSFORMATION OF COMPUTER INFORMATION BETWEEN REPRESENTATION SCHEMES discloses a uni-level description of computer information built using basic structures of a metamodel allows model, schema, and instance information to be represented explicitly for a variety of distinct model-based representation schemes or models. Exemplary distinct representation schemes include Extensible Markup Language (XML), Resource Description Framework (RDF), developed by the World Wide Consortium, Topic Maps, and a relational database model.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2003/0208499 A1 published Nov. 6, 2003 by Bigwood et at. For METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR VISUALIZING RELATIONSHIPS AMONG TRIPLES OF RESOURCE DESCRIPTION FRAMEWORK (RDF) DATA SETS discloses a method for visualizing relationships among triples of an RDF data set. The method includes grouping subjects of at least selected ones of the triples based on commonality of at least portions of the identifiers of those subjects.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2004/0122851 A1 published Jun. 24, 2004 by Kinno et al. for IDENTIFIER GENERATING METHOD, IDENTITY DETERMINING METHOD, IDENTIFIER TRANSMITTING METHOD, IDENTIFIER GENERATING APPARATUS, IDENTITY DETERMINING APPARATUS, AND IDENTIFIER TRANSMITTING APPARATUS discloses an identifier generating method having a canonicalization process step of subjecting document data to a canonicalization process to correct fluctuation of expression; and an identifier generating step of, based on all or part of document data having been subjected to the canonicalization process in the canonicalization process step, generating an identifier uniquely specifying the document data or part thereof.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2004/0153508 A1 published Aug. 5, 2004 by Alcorn et al. for INTERNET-BASED EDUCATION SUPPORT SYSTEM, METHOD AND MEDIUM PROVIDING SECURITY ATTRIBUTES IN MODULAR, EXTENSIBLE COMPONENTS discloses providing and/or installing extensions to enhance functionality of a computer system. User roles may be provided or associated with extensible components in determining user access to the enhanced functionality.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2004/0153509 A1 published Aug. 5, 2004 by Alcorn et al. for INTERNET-BASED EDUCATION SUPPORT SYSTEM, METHOD AND MEDIUM WITH MODULAR TEXT-EDITING COMPONENT FOR USE IN A WEB-BASED APPLICATION discloses accessing a text editor, accessing a text tool, and associating text tool data with the text editor. The text editor may invoke the text tool.
FULLY-DIGITAL GML-BASED AUTHORING AND DELIVERY SYSTEM FOR HYPERMEDIA, IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 35, No. 2, Pages 458-463 (July 1992), discloses a system that combines various elements of electronic publishing, including tag-based text authoring and retrieval programs, hypertext, digital multimedia, and optical storage, to easily author, revise, and distribute large hypermedia documents.
OBJECT FORMAT FOR PARTS MANAGEMENT OF DYNAMIC WEB CONTENTS CREATION SYSTEM, 428145, Research Disclosure, (December 1999, 1707) discloses an object format for exchange electronic resources over the Internet.
AN UNIFIED MODEL OF SEMANTIC DESCRIPTION FORMAT FOR DEVICES IN BLUETOOTH PICONET, 455154, Research Disclosure, (March 2003/513) discloses a framework for inter-communication among a multitude of diverse devices in a Bluetooth piconet, using a unified sematic description language.
THE DATA ALCHEMISTS, Savage, IEEE Spectrum (July 2003) discloses using knowledge-management software to extract valuable information from data residing in multiple databases and using Resource Description Format (RDF) as a way of specifying the relationship between entities.